How to Fish FAQ

A physics fishing game where the catch fights back. You hook creatures, finish them with weapons, sell what you land and spend the money on gear that opens harder water. Dazed Games released it on Steam on August 20, 2026.

Counting the island pools gives 38 regular catches, plus 11 boss and mini-boss encounters — 49 in total. That matches the 49 the larger guide sites publish. The fish page shows the count island by island so you can check it. Patch 1.1.0 added more creatures and a new mini-boss around the mini islands, which are not in this count yet.

Almost always the lure. Each island pool is tied to its own lure and a higher tier is not a universal substitute, so a Scientific Lure will not quietly catch what a Beginner Lure would.

Yes, added in Patch 1.0.9. Easy and Hard sit either side of the original tuning, which stayed as the default. Boss advice on this wiki assumes the default.

Around six to ten hours if you explore, do side quests and experiment with upgrades. There is also a sub-one-hour route — the Bean achievement is tied to that target, which is why speedruns of this game exist at all.

A flagged catch type rather than a rarity tier or a skin. Three of the regular catches carry the flag; the game marks one on screen when you reel it in, and killing it pays a small bonus. One is also what the Tourist quest asks for.

Yes, full controller support including DualShock and DualSense. The in-game controls screen shows keyboard, mouse and controller bindings together, along with the rebinding options available.

Sixteen — English plus fifteen others.

Rare alternate versions of regular catches, marked by a rainbow-coloured name. They use the same rod and lure as the ordinary version and do not add to the creature count.

No — that is the single most common misunderstanding. The boss drops a distinctive trophy, and handing that trophy to the NPC who asked for it is what opens the next island. Sell the trophy by mistake and the quest stays open.

Not through the story. The chain runs Spider Crab, Giant Piranha, Pufferfish, Albatross, then the whale, and a better boat or a better gun does not skip a step.

Each one needs a specific item to appear at all — an Empty Beer Can for the Spider Crab, a Carrot for the Pufferfish, and so on. The fight starts at the shop.

Only the Tuna, and only indirectly: its body is what draws the Albatross, so do not sell it. Sunfish, The Old Pike, Blue Shark and Goblin Shark sit outside the story chain.

One to eight. Patch 1.0.4 raised the lobby limit from four, and Patch 1.0.5 added private lobbies that are joinable by invite only.

Yes. Given that everyone is holding a firearm on a small island, a co-op wipe is not always a bug.

Mismatched patch versions refuse lobbies, and it looks like a network fault rather than a version one. Make sure everyone is on the same build and restart Steam after a hotfix.

No, and that is deliberate — Patch 1.0.6 removed it. A save is written when you use the Save button, return to the Main Menu or Quit, plus an autosave roughly every minute. Stop at a clean point and use the button before anything risky.

Patch 1.0.11 made the game check saves before loading and write a backup when it finds corruption. Steam Cloud arrived in 1.0.12, which also means a corrupted file follows you between machines — a Cloud copy is not a backup by itself.

Yes, since Patch 1.0.11, which also added GeForce NOW support.

The physics simulation is the load rather than the scenery, so lower water, particles and shadows first, then cap the framerate at 60 — leaving it uncapped keeps the CPU pinned.

No. It is a fan-run reference, not affiliated with or endorsed by Dazed Games.

Pages are checked against the patch listed on the patch notespage. Each guide carries the date it was last checked.

Published community and press guides, cross-checked against each other. Where they disagree, the disagreement is shown rather than resolved by picking the most popular answer. How this wiki is sourced has the detail.

Yes, and corrections are the most useful kind. Send them here.